


Tattoos

by nerdqueenenterprise



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Tattoos, horribly bad flirting, snuggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdqueenenterprise/pseuds/nerdqueenenterprise
Summary: Paul has some opinions about Hugh's tattoos.





	1. Chapter 1

Hugh wakes up to warm. Warm, and bed, and definitely Paul’s presence. Mmh.

It’s already light outside, so Hugh only flutters his eyelashes a little bit, catching the barest glimpse of Paul on his side next to him.

     “Morning.” Paul’s voice is warm, sounds a little sleep-rough, and his hand on Hugh’s stomach tightens minutely.

Then the softest, gentlest lips touch Hugh’s shoulder, run over the ridges of bone and muscle, and the cellophane wrap crinkles ever-so-quietly against Paul’s stubble.

Hugh breathes.

So does Paul. The air fans over the cellophane, and Hugh feels the sensitive skin underneath a bit more sharply for a moment.

     “You like them?” he asks. His voice is rough, too.

There’s a thumb on the edge of the surgical site, tiniest pressure again highlighted exponentially by sore skin.

     “I liked the rainbow as it was.”

     “So you don’t like them.” Hugh smiles anyway, eyes still closed.

     “I didn’t say that.”

     “But?”

Paul strokes again, kisses again, other hand still on Hugh’s stomach, and the bed is so toasty and fluffy around them that Hugh wants to stay here forever.

     “Can’t they heal the site immediately afterwards?”

     “Of course they can. I just didn’t want them to.”

Another ghost of a kiss.

     “Never call me weird again when you do things like that.”

Hugh laughs, slow and deep and sleepy, more of a chuckle than a proper laugh.

     “It’s just an addition to a tattoo, love.”

     “They’re  _mushrooms_.”

     “Yeah.”

     “You had someone hammer a needle into your skin, repeatedly, for two mushrooms.”

     “You make it sound so dramatic.”

Paul kisses his skin again. The cellophane crinkles again. Hugh’s sore skin tingles again.

     “It sounds so painful. I don’t like - I don’t like the thought of you in pain.”

Hugh blinks and squints against the bright sun (they must’ve fallen asleep right after their post-sex shower, so that would explain why they didn’t polarize the windows) and looks at his boyfriend. Paul isn’t distressed, per se, but there is a little frown on his face.

     “Oh, love. It didn’t hurt much. Don’t worry.”

The frown smooths out and Paul strokes the edges again.

     “Maybe they are kind of pretty,” he admits.

     “Maybe?”

     “Are you ever going to get more?”

     “Sure.”

     “Can I come with you? Hold your hand? Even if you say it doesn’t hurt?”

Oh. Oh, no, that’s adorable.

     “Got any suggestions for what I should get next, then?”

     “Maybe not ruin any of your existing tattoos. Or get a plasma tattoo, those don’t hurt.”

Aw, but he’s adorable when he’s playing at being grumpy.

     “The nipple piercings hurt more.”

Paul snorts in laughter, dropping his head against Hugh’s shoulder and shaking quietly.

     “And you really like those,” Hugh adds.

Paul’s chest is pressing against the healing skin on his upper arm now, a few wrinkles in the cellophane making themselves known, but it really doesn’t hurt too much.

 

 

 

 

Way later, when Hugh can leave the skin bare again, Paul kisses the two mushrooms flanking the rainbow even more, there are even more touches and it becomes Paul’s task to put on the soothing cream.

 

 

 

And even later, on their first day as husbands, Hugh finally takes Paul with him to get the tattoo he’d been thinking of. Paul holds his hand and glares at the needle (and at half of Hugh’s chest having to be clean shaven), but eventually, finally, a pretty winged and halo-ed heart with Paul’s name and the date of their wedding glows a sore red (and later a simple black) on his chest.   
Paul is really happy with how it turned out. So is Hugh. The tattoo artist ‘aww’s when they tell her that it’s Paul’s design.  
And when years later Paul finally decides he wants a matching one, he visits the same studio, simply draws a new design with Hugh’s name in it, bites his lips against the pain and revels in Hugh’s face when he shows it off.


	2. Chapter 2

     “I love you,” Paul mumbles into Hugh’s neck, voice thick with sleep. He makes a snuffling little sigh against Hugh’s skin and settles again, eyelashes tickling shut. And then: “You smell good.”

Hugh’s eyes stay on the report about the vaccine for Andorian measles, but his mind is with Paul in an instant.

     “I love you too,” he replies, running his hand over Paul’s back a little. He can’t keep the smile off his face, and who even cares about that report?

Paul breathes softly, slowly, calm in a way he rarely is, mind finally quiet and at rest.

     “Then why’d you get those  _hideous_  mushrooms tattooed?”

It’s not a question Hugh would’ve anticipated, and he can’t help but snort, body jerking a little. Paul growls in complaint as much as he can manage without putting any effort in.

     “What?”

     “The rainbow was really nice on its own, but then you had to go and have it be flanked with mushrooms.  _Amanita muscaria_  on top of that. You know I use different mushrooms, right? That there’s a difference?”

Hugh tries his hardest to stop shaking with silent laughter, but his boyfriend’s indignation is just too perfect.

     “Stop shaking.”

     “Oh,  _Paul_.”

     “The rainbow was so pretty and then you had it flanked with mushrooms!”

Hugh discards the PADD and turns to kiss Paul on the temple.

     “I love you.”

     “I know, and -”

     “- and you love me too, but the ‘shroom tat is almost too much?”

Paul burrows deeper into Hugh’s neck to try and hide his smile.

     “Yes.”

     “So if I got a, hm, Amita something tattooed on my face, you’d break up with me?”

     “ _Amanita muscaria._ ”

     “Yes. That. Would you break up with me?”

Paul gives a small hidden giggle.

     “If you had a mushroom tattooed on your face?”

      “Yeah.” Hugh nudges Paul’s foot with his. “One like the ones on your socks.”

     “They’re your socks.”

     “But you’re wearing them.”

      “Your point?”

      “I don’t know whether I could take you serious.” There’s so much smile in Paul’s voice that Hugh’s heart grows a couple sizes.

     “You’d only ever fuck me from behind? How about kisses?”

     “I wouldn’t kiss you anymore.”

     “Aw. What if I got a different mushroom tat?”

     “Not on your face. Two horrible mushrooms inked forever onto your skin are enough.”

     “Love, there might be two mushrooms inked into my skin, but only one in my heart. Besides, it’s not like you can remove ink perfectly.”

     “Am I… the other mushroom?”

     “Yes.”

     “Oh, god.”

     “I can’t remove you with lasers though.”

     “If you’re trying to flirt with me, maybe you should stop.”

     “You think?”

     “Yes.”

Hugh wiggles his fingers under Paul’s shirt and pokes the soft skin there.

     “Make me,” he says, hoping for a kiss.

Instead, Paul’s hand comes up and clamps over his mouth, and that’s the end of that.

**Author's Note:**

> (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧  
> please leave me a comment if you enjoyed this fic! it would honestly make my day!


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